


Pirate King Lucy

by whisperingink



Category: One Piece
Genre: Cisswap, F/M, post thriller bark
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-06
Updated: 2014-02-06
Packaged: 2018-01-11 10:14:34
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,941
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1171855
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/whisperingink/pseuds/whisperingink
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Zoro reflecting on his life spent with future pirate queen Monkey D. Lucy and wondering when exactly he started viewing her as more than his captain</p>
            </blockquote>





	Pirate King Lucy

When he meets her she is 5’3’’ of boundless energy and big dark eyes that look at him with excitement shining as she tells him that she’s going to be the pirate king and he’s going to be part of her crew. Or the start of a crew more accurately, since all she has is a sailboat and her iron determination, but he couldn’t know that at the time, being tied to a post and all. He mainly remembers that little girl standing in front of him with her slim arms crossed in front of her chest confidently, a broad grin spread across her face and straw hat casting a shadow over her pale face.

She tells him her name is Lucy, and “I’ve already decided you’ll become my nakama,” she grins. Then this strange girl informs him that she’ll get his swords back all by herself and afterwards teases him that he’ll either become her comrade or die by the marines. She’s a devil of a woman and she does not look like a pirate. But then she easily takes out men twice her size with her weird rubber power and and tells him she expects nothing less than for him to become the world’s best swordsman.

There’s no turning back after that.

He doesn’t know why he even says yes to joining her, when he knows how he is about women ever since she died so long ago. But Lucy is different, she doesn’t seem like a typical girl at first, or even a girl at all, with her ability to put away a whole city’s worth of food in a sitting and rough manner of speaking. But then he realizes that’s bullshit, she is very much a girl who loves cute things and enjoys sticking flowers in his hair like some kind of forest fairy, no matter how much he tells her to knock it off. She sticks her tongue out at him and says she can do whatever she wants to with flowers because she’s the Captain. Captain Lucy. He learns to just sigh and let her have her way.

Nami joining shows him that no, he has not gotten better with women, Lucy really is just the exception. He and Nami fight all the time, well, more like she yells at him and he rolls his eyes, but they are crew, and he’d take a bullet for her without question. Lucy is still the one he prefers talking to though. After Usopp joins, she likes to fight with him on the deck of the Going Merry, sparring ferociously with that same grin on her face as she dodges his swords and shoots out her crazy rubber fists.

After, she’ll tug him down next to her, groaning about being tired as she lays her head in Zoro’s lap like it’s no big deal at all. Surprisingly, he doesn’t feel the urge to run away. It’s easy, being around her, though he would never admit it, and at the time he’d expected once more men joined he’d stop being so close to her. Well, Usopp and Sanji proved that wrong, because even though they’re both important crew, Usopp is definitely not someone he’d let lay their head in his lap, and he wants to kill Sanji 99% of the time.

The first time he realizes that he’s truly become the first mate to the future Pirate King is when he loses to Mihawk. He can only think, as his lies there on the floor of a ship with his chest spewing blood, that he’s failed her. He’s failed Lucy, his captain, his future King, and he can only shout to the sky that he will never lose again, for her sake. But when he hears her familiar laugh, that rough and high _shishishi_ , he feels at ease, and the pain all over his body lessens. Mihawk’s humiliation will stay with him forever, but he can swallow it down, for her.

Lucy, he soon realizes, is someone he wants to protect, and that confuses him because Lucy is stronger than he is without a doubt, so there’s honestly no need for him to protect her, even if she insists over and over that she needs her swordsman. Well, even if she is strong, good god can she be oblivious, borderline stupid even. She doesn’t notice other pirates, always male pirates, looking at her like she’s meat that can be sized up and consumed. To him Lucy is his captain first and woman second, but that is not the case with other men. They don’t know that she can knock them out with a punch, for they only see a short, cute girl with big eyes who looks so very breakable.

He takes to standing behind her with his swords drawn whenever others approach, towering behind her like some sort of fearsome shadows as she smirks at the enemy with her fists clenched. Zoro will glare at the pitiful insects of men who think they have what it takes to defeat his captain and take her like she isn’t the most remarkable person he’s ever met, he’ll glare and cut and do whatever it takes to make sure his captain isn’t threatened. Without her, there are no Strawhat Pirates, and that’s not something he’ll risk.

For the longest time he doesn’t realize what’s happening to him. It takes two more tough adventures of gaining new nakama, a woman he barely trusted but would now die for and a robot man who fights like a whole army, before they come to the point of his life where he realizes he’s changed more than he ever thought he would. Thriller Bark.

If someone had told him all those years ago, right after he joined Lucy on their adventure, that he would beg and plead for a monster of a man to spare her so that she and her dream could live, in exchange for his life, he would have scoffed. He’d told Lucy that the minute her dream interfered with his goal to become the best swordsman in the world, he’d be gone. But that wasn’t the case anymore. All he can see is that small girl, not even twenty, hanging limp and unconscious in that beast Kuma’s hand as he pushes the pain from her, an enormous purple sphere, leaving her ashen faced and covered in blood as he lays her down on the nearest rock.

_“Please take my life...instead of hers.”_

It takes seeing her lying bleeding and broken, with red liquid smeared over her pale face and pooling around her, for him to realize that there’s no point in become a master swordsman if he has nobody to fight for. So he stares down yet another monster, with determination in his eyes and fire in his chest even as his limbs ache and his bones crack

_“Lucy is...the woman who will become Pirate King!”_

So he takes on her pain. He takes it all, every blow and kick and punch from her previous fights, where she was nearly beaten to death, he takes every last bit of pain even after Kuma gives him the slightest taste and his body is wracked with the most horrific pain he’s ever felt in his life. He remains steadfast though, standing and staring into the darkness that clouds his vision as his body begins to go numb from the pain. When Sanji finds him, horror in his eyes and his face going white with fear, he realizes he must look even worse than he feels. But it’s worth it, to know she’s alive, she’s okay, her dream is still intact.

But she can never know. He knows that if he cares about Lucy more than he does about himself, then she feels the same for every member of her crew, maybe even more than he does. If she were to find out what Zoro did for her, that it was Kuma that left him on the verge of death and allowed her to live because Zoro took her pain, she would be overcome with guilt, not resting until she took revenge for him. And he refuses to do anything that would cause his captain more pain. Because….because…

He loves her.

He loves his captain. His airheaded, food-obsessed, hero complex captain with messy short black hair and big bright eyes who looks so small but is deceptively strong, who he knows would fight through armies to keep him safe...him, and the rest of her nakama. Lucy has never once shown an interest in romance, with men or women, Zoro doesn’t know if she cares about that stuff at all. There’s no way for him to know what to do.

And of course it takes Robin and Nami exactly half an hour of being in the same room with him to deduce that he’s fallen head over heels for their captain.

Women’s intuition, they call it.

Being nosy she-demons, he calls it.

And it’s infuriating, because now whenever Lucy curls up next to him in the infirmary until Chopper drags her out the door, Zoro always catches Robin winking or Nami hiding a smirk. He wishes he could just enjoy his captain’s attention, even if he’d never admit it. Although he knows that the entire crew is tightlipped about his sacrifice, Lucy isn’t stupid, she knows something unspeakable happened involving Kuma and Zoro, and he finds her sneaking into his bed in the middle of the night. Her intentions are pure, Lucy doesn’t distinguish between her male and female nakama and would probably do the same if it were Sanji in this bed (although the very thought of her nuzzling against the pervert cook makes his hand itch for kitetsu).

When it first happened, the night after he finally woke up, he found Lucy sitting on his bedside with her hat off for once and her face whiter than Brook’s. She frowns prominently, shaking her head as she places her hand on top of Zoro’s. “I dreamed that I lost my swordsman,” she says, her only words before crawling under the covers with him, “Zoro should never scare me like that again, or I’ll kick his ass.” She whispers that even as she very lightly traces the bandages that cover most of his body, fingers shaking. Lucy keeps a happy face on almost always, except for the times when he sees the rage bubble over, but now she looks very somber.

“Aye, Captain,” he grins, even though it hurts to even smile.

This is strange. He’s a pirate, he’s a swordsman, a first mate, he doesn’t have time (or the emotional capacity probably) to deal with love. Is this really love, anyways, or just run of the mill devotion to a captain he’s somehow warped with his own fucked up issues involving women? He thinks of Lucy, not as his captain, but as a woman, because she is definitely a woman curled up against his chest with her hand placed over Mihawk’s scar.

He doesn’t know many women, just Nami and Robin really, and they are beautiful, he supposes, but nothing like Lucy. Lucy stands eight inches shorter than him, and she isn’t nearly as curvy as her “big sisters.” Her...breasts (and oh god, he’s thinking of his captain’s tits and she could kill him for that) are petite, small enough that he could easily cup them in his broad, scarred hands. Her waist flares to slim hips that he wants to grab, and her legs would look good wrapped around his waist, Zoro’s sure of that.

Damn. He really does have it bad. He starts to wonder how she would react if he were to kiss her, but then stops himself, because after killing dozens of men for looking at Lucy the wrong way, he’s not about to start turning into them. His place as her sword hand is unchanged by his feelings, he could live forever without confessing and be perfectly alright with that so long as they achieve their dreams by each other’s sides. They sleep like that and when he wakes up, Lucy’s gone, off bounding with the rest of the crew with that brilliant bright smile on her pretty face. He’d be fine if they stayed like this forever.

However, it seems that the rest of the crew disagrees, especially Robin who grows impatient and Sanji, who’s irritated. Zoro’s not sure why these two people, out of everyone else in the crew, seem to want him to confess to Lucy the most.

“Lucy is my precious little sister,” Robin says casually as she sits next to Zoro on the deck, reading yet another book as he polishes his swords, “And she is also my captain, Mr. Swordsman, as she is yours. When you confess to her I expect you to treat her like the king she has always aspired to be; she deserves nothing less.” After spluttering that he wasn’t interested in Lucy like that at all, Robin sprouted a hand out of his chest (which would never fail to weird him out) to put a finger to his lips, a smirk on her face. “Oh you are many things, Mr. Swordsman,” she winks, “Subtle is not one of them.”

Sanji is even weirder about it, scoffing at Zoro when the latter goes into the kitchen to grab a bottle of sake, telling him that Lucy wants to know when dinner will be. “Tell my adorable captain dinner will be ready as soon as her idiot lover puts the sake back because I need it for cooking.” Zoro almost chokes on his mouthful of alcohol, and it burns his throat as he gulps it down, staring at Sanji. Lover?

“Fuck off, shitty cook,” he gasps, shoving the sake back into the refrigerator as he glares at Sanji, itching to draw a sword or three in the kitchen. But Lucy would never forgive him if he interfered with dinner being ready on time, “Captain and I are not-I mean, we’re not-she’s not-gah, fuck off, eyebrow, it’s none of your business! And there’s no business to start with.” Sanji rolls his eyes and expertly flips whatever’s cooking in the frying pan as he keeps talking to Zoro.

“Listen here shitty swordsman, you might be able to fool the other meathead men on this ship, but I know how you look at the captain and while I think she deserves someone better than you,” _if you say yourself I will eviscerate you_ , Zoro thinks, “It’s getting old sitting around on the ship watching you pine for our cute captain, so be a man, dammit! Tell her that you want nothing more than to take her into your scarred up brutish arms and -”

“I’m stopping you right there before I accidentally slice apart your stove,” Zoro growls, stalking out of the galley with a red face. He takes a look at Lucy on the grassy part of the deck, spread out with her hat on her stomach and black hair fanning around her head as she laughs next to Nami, who’s smiling down at her like she’s a treasure. Lucy is a treasure really, to all of them, she’s their captain who united them and leads them to glory and victory time and time again all while remaining the same optimistic, pure hearted girl who freed him all those years ago.

Every one of the Strawhat Pirates clearly loves Lucy with good reason, but why is he different? Even Sanji, who will hit on anything that moves, only ever refers to their captain with sweet, mild epithets, so why is Zoro the one who wants to grasp her waist and push her up against the wall- No, this is stopping, dinner is too close to get so frustrated. God, this will drive him mad eventually, he can tell, maybe he should listen to his annoying crew and just...just tell her how he feels. If she rejects him maybe that’s better, he can move on and go back to just thinking about getting stronger. Next time they dock, he decides, he’ll go off with her….tell her then.

He takes her for food when they pull up to a coastal town, one unfortunately known for being a hot spot for marines, but they need supplies badly enough to risk it. Nami and Robin convince Lucy into a different outfit, one without her hat, which he knows she must hate but they all agree that at this point her straw hat is too iconic to wear into huge towns like this. Her heart shaped face is so easily seen now, framed by her messy black hair. That scar under one of her big dark eyes stands out, not obscured by the shade of her hat for once. Nami and Robin wrangled her into something other than her vest and shorts, and she goes along with it, because she loves her ‘big sisters’ he knows. She...she does look awfully cute in the modest sundress they put her in.

“Lucy, you’re like a doll! You look so cute!” Robin coos as Lucy grins at them through gritted teeth, tolerating Nami yanking a brush through her hair for the first time all month. Zoro can tell that the second they’re alone that dress is going to end up scuffed and torn one way or another. He just hopes it didn’t cost too many belis. Lucy gets over her annoyance pretty quickly though, and grabs onto Zoro’s arm to drag him into town excitedly.

He buys her food because what else does one buy Lucy on a day off? Steak and chicken and pasta and whatever else she decides to order, because there’s no knowing how much Lucy can put away in one sitting. And just like he predicted, within three minutes she has some stains on that pretty sundress Nami and Robin bought for her. But it doesn’t matter, because he’s beginning to realize this is the first time he’s been really alone with his captain in what seems like ages. Just like she can read his mind, Lucy laughs,

“Shishishi, Zoro, it’s been awhile since it was just the two of us! Oi, if you’re not going to drink that sake, let me have some!” She’s right, he doesn’t plan on drinking for once, he wants to have a clear head when he finally gets these stupid feelings out so things might be able to go back to normal.

“Zoro’s being weird today,” Lucy says, frowning as she shakes his shoulder, jarring him in his seat, “What’s wrong with him?”

And just as gracefully as anyone could predict, he grips her tiny wrist and stares her in those big eyes as he blurts out, “Captain, I like you...I like you as more than a captain, I mean.” There’s silence as he processes just how badly he fucked up probably one of the most important confessions of his life, but then he realizes that Lucy’s just grinning up at him from her seat.

“Zoro’s being so funny today,” she laughs, squeezing his hand with those flexible fingers of hers, “Pretending to confess to me like it’s the first time again. He’s so cute, I love Zoro!”

Wait.

_What the hell?_

“What do you mean, like it’s the first time?” he asks, incredulous, “Captain, this is the first time I’ve confessed to you. I’ve...I think I’ve wanted to be with you for a long time,” his voice turns into a mutter, embarrassed as hell to be saying something so soft in front of his captain, “The way men are with women.” Now it’s Lucy’s turn to look confused as she takes another bite out of her enormous steak.

“What is Zoro talking about?” she asks, talking with her mouth full, “We’ve been together for years. Zoro is mine; my first mate and swordsman and just _mine_ ,” she emphasizes, her eyes glinting with a sort of possession he can’t remember seeing in his captain’s eyes before as she swallows her food, “He agreed to be mine years ago. Does he not know we’ve been together all this time?”

This woman is going to be the death of him.

He groans and presses his face into his hands, sighing in exasperation because he cannot believe that he’s spent so long agonizing over whether or not to confess to Lucy when she’s apparently been under the impression that they’ve been together since they met. He could have been with her for years instead of angsting about it.

“Lucy, I’ve been with you for ages, but I had absolutely no clue that you thought we were...together. We haven’t kissed once. We sleep in separate beds, for fuck’s sake, how did you think this stuff up?” he asks, incredulous. She simply shrugs.

“I just thought Zoro was shy.”

Fucking amazing.

He stares at her for a few seconds, at her messy short hair, steak sauce smeared around the corners of her mouth, and that simple, sweet smile she wears around him.

Then he finally thinks, ‘ _to hell with it all_ ’ and grabs her face, kissing her like he’s been wanting to since….since he met her, probably.

Lucy drops her fork in surprise before laughing, kissing him back kind of like how she eats: sloppy and enthusiastic and endearing as she wraps her bendy arms around his neck and licks at his lips. Zoro doesn’t remember exactly when they were kicked out of the restaurant for being indecent just like he doesn’t remember how they got back to the Sunny when they’re both terrible at directions, but he does remember how she feels pressed against him entirely, whispering over and over, “I love Zoro.”

He can’t bring himself to say, “I love you, Lucy,” just yet because words are weird and too concrete and he’s not quite sure any of this is real, even as he ruins her dress further with enthusiastic hands (it doesn’t matter, Nami will just add more to his debt). She leaves a rather rough bite mark on his collarbone. He can only stare up at her, his captain, wearing nothing but panties way cuter than he expected while sitting on top of him, wondering if he’s going to wake up soon. Then she starts to pull off his shirt, whispering that the crew will be back soon as she rocks on top of him, as if to urge him on, and he decides that he doesn’t give a damn if he’s dreaming or not anymore. It must be different, to the both of them. For him he’s fulfilling old desires. For her, she’s finally defrosted the boy she’s been with since the start.

“I want Zoro to kiss me again,” she says, still exuberant and demanding as ever, “I want him to kiss me every day for the rest of my life, and I’ll do the same for him.” He can’t speak, he just nods, crashing their lips together again like a promise. He’s gone at that point, drowning in the taste and feel of his captain and his lover, and he soon finds out that being with a rubber woman is just as amazing as he’d thought it would be.

At the end of it all he owes her a new dress and new panties and she has to explain to Chopper where the bites on Zoro’s neck came from, but with Lucy sleeping by his side every night now, waking him up in the morning by blowing a raspberry against his cheek, he doesn't care.

Not one bit. 


End file.
